Quote:
Originally Posted by A Tad Bit Catatonic
All I can say is: Tool is the greatest band this planet has ever seen!
I actually went with my aunt, and I had some shitty tickets. We were up in the rafters, and it is so high up there that she freaked out and almost had a panic attack. So we went and talked to guest services and they allowed us to "upgrade" our tickets to section 121, then we were about 50 feet from the stage. She's never been to a show, and she was apologizing to me at first for freaking out. I was like NO NO NO, you just made the show a hundred times better for us hah. What amazing luck - my mind was blown. I was about to shit myself. What can I say, I'm not gonna try to analyze the show. It was an amazing experience. They were definitely ON. Best Tool show I have ever seen by far. Very cool people too. Sean, Chris and David, it was my pleasure to share that experience with you guys and everyone else!
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My sentiments as well, brother! It was strange how we kept meeting up during/after the show. Even stranger was reading your post at 4:00 a.m. after returning from my brutal 14 hour coast-to-coast journey. It made me smile.
The whole D.C. experience was beyond words. Tool and 20,000 friends blowing the roof off the Verizon Center---one mile from the White House. A beacon of truth piercing the liar's lair! This was my fourth show on this tour. The D.C. fans were incredible (except for two meatheads that I will mention later). Thanks for making my solo journey worth the bullsh_t and $$$.
I was in Sec. 113 Row S on the aisle (dude in the black tank with a "bright, and blue, and shimmering" third eye on it). The view was great, although the sound (bass)was frankly lacking a bit compared to the other shows. A minor quibble---the band was incredibly tight and, I believe, more animated than some of the other shows.
I have some thoughts about the rockstar/hero idea posted earlier. I have followed Tool for over a decade, and have been touched deeply by not only their incredible precision and innovation, but by their courage and intelligence...
...No, there is something more, I believe. Tool is tapped into an energy that is beyond description, but that resides within all of us. I am a seeker, and am fascinated with mythic imagery and the shaman's journey. I once lived on a remote Alaskan island alone for a year (as a lodge caretaker), listening to Tool on a CD player powered by a generator, and have felt this connection. It is what keeps me coming to the shows again and again. In the presence of their music, I jump out of my skin, and lose myself (find my Self?).
BUT this does not mean that Tool (or Maynard, or Danny, or Adam ,or Justin) are deities to me. They are men, flesh and blood, just like you or I. I do believe, though, that they are like the trickster gods of Native American religions. Those gods were often comical and abrasive, in order to keep us from getting lost in their images. They were mere manifestations of that which is indescribable. The problem of Christianity is precisely the result of the fixation on the surface image of Christ and not the underlying mystery. This is why people will ridiculously pay a thousand dollars for a tortilla with the Virgin Mary burned upon it---as if a piece of flour and oil had any magical power! This is why I shredded a bible on the last day of Catholic prep school. Don't get lost in the image!
Tool and particulary Maynard challenge us all as devotees, to remain inspired by their music and words, and not to get absorbed in them as rock stars. They are both showmen and shamen.
BUT to be honest, I did hang aroung before and after the show to see if i could meet the band. I wanted to express gratitude for how they have enriched my life for all these years. Of course, I also felt like a groupie (which i was, for a moment).
So, there I was after last call at Ruby Tuesday's, meeting up with two other fans, waiting outside the loading bay for the band. A tour bus was outside, but I was pretty sure it wasn't theirs (which was later confirmed by a crew member walking by). Suddenly the doors open and a blond woman comes walkng out with a magnificent Great Dane (one of my favorite dogs).. I talked to her about the dog, kind of awkwardly, as she walked the dog past me. Later,as I sat against the Verizon center in front of the idling tour bus, these two twenty-something douchebags start wrestling on the pavement, for a good ten minutes. I finally said something to them, which prompted them to direct all of their testosterone at me. There I was, just wanting to see the band, and suddenly I'm being chest-bumped by two assholes. Then POW! Here comes D.C.s finest, rolling up on the scene. "Hey nothing went on,man. Everything's cool, man," says one of the meatheads to me. "Oh, really? That's not what you were saying a second ago!" Not sure what happened to them, but it was a sweet moment.
Never did get to see the band, but oh, well. The music is enough. I must remember: don't get lost in the image!